Sol.
Sun-light. Saccharum lactis is exposed to concentrated sun’s rays and
stirred with a glass rod till saturated. Attenuations by Fincke.Clinical.─
Cancer. Freckles. Headache. Lupus.
Menses, premature. Paralysis. Sunburn. Sunstroke.
Characteristics.─
Thanks to Finsen, of Copenhagen,
the place of Light in therapeutics is on the way to be defined so far as its direct properties are concerned, though Finsen is reviving and
confirming, rather than originating, light-therapy. O. V. Thayer (H.
R., viii. 463) published in 1893 a series of cases in which he had used
concentrated rays of sun-light (solar cautery), including cases of epithelial cancer, rodent
ulcer, parasitic diseases, moles, small wens, birth-marks, &c. H. T. Webster (H. R., xv. 126) gives details of a case of epithelioma in which
the growth was removed by solar-cautery and a scarcely perceptible scar left. Swan and his
coadjutors investigated sun-light from another point of view. In 188o (Org., iii. 275) Swan published a pathogenesis of Sol, which I have embodied in my Schema. Swan’s data were
obtained from four provers, from experiences obtained from sensitives by Reichenbach (Der Sensitive Mench), from an observation by “Highwood”
quoted by Fincke from American Observer, ix. 210. Reichenbach’s observations I have
distinguished by “(R),” Highwood’s by “(H).” The remaining symptoms are
those who took principally the 1m attenuations of Fincke. The 15m was taken by one. Two of
Reichenbach’s symptoms were observed on two of the provers also, and the letters
“(F)” and “(L)” refer to these. Cured symptoms will be found in
brackets. The common effects of strong sun-light, as sneezing, freckling, and sunstroke, my
be added to the list.
Relations.─
Antidoted by:
Aco., Bell., Glon., Gels., and other sunstroke remedies. Compare:
Luna, Elec., Mgt. Dislike of sun, Lach., Nat. c.
SYMPTOMS.
1. Mind.─
Excitement and anxiousness in all her
nerves, at first with trembling at heart, finally it remained in stomach-pit; all that night
and next day very sensitive and easily frightened; it was as if all the nerves were
trembling inside of them; the anxiousness in stomach-pit passes off the second evening.─Anxiousness
if somebody comes towards her, being frightened thereat (F and R).
2. Head.─
Violent headache from vertex down to
forehead, pressing, with sensation of heat in face; this headache was repeated the second
day three times; it seems to be in connection with the excitement and anxiousness at
stomach-pit (first night).─All the sensitives are very sensitive to the
immediate action of sunshine on the vertex (R).─Extreme painfulness if
the sunshine strike the bare-head (R).─Most violent stitches in brain
(R).─Disagreeable feelings, such as from retrograde passes, go into
brain, cause stitches and headache, and if she does not gain the shade, stomach-ache and
nausea follow (R).─Violent headache (R).─L.─sided
headache (R).─Headache from sunshine on bare head, > by laying a glass of water on stomach-pit (R).─In
morning, severe pain in crown, and then in neck, passing off after breakfast (L and R).─(Heavy
pressive pain in vertex.).─Intense entire cephalalgia.─Pain
in forehead; it seems as if forehead would crush itself down upon the eyes.─(Sensation
of undulating or floating in head after mental excitement, such as attending to business or
writing a letter.).─Instantaneous shock to brain, followed by
prostration, and a scalding sensation on top of head (remedied by orange-coloured cloth in
stove-pipe hat) (H).─Excessive perspiration of head and neck.
3. Eyes.─
Sun-light diminished the sensitivity of
eyes; od.─blindness (R).─Suffusion of veins of
sclerotica.─Sensation of swelling, as if eyes would force themselves out
of sockets.─Light offends eyes.
4. Ears.─
Sharp shooting pain from l. ear to nose,
continued at intervals for some time.─Partial deafness.
5. Nose.─
Sneezing, with a little sore throat, as
if she had taken cold.
6. Face.─
Jaws rigidly set as in trismus.
7. Teeth.─
Grinding of teeth as in helminthic
spasms.
8. Mouth.─
Tastes like something she cannot tell.─She
puts anything she is going to eat in the sunshine, because then it is more palatable to her
(R).─Two glasses of water of equal temperature, the one put in the
shade, the other in the sunshine for a quarter of an hour, the latter tastes agreeably cool
to sensitives, and stale and disagreeable to non-sensitives, whilst the other tastes quite
the reverse (R).─Stupid; cannot articulate a word.─Articulates
with difficulty.
11. Stomach.─
Slight inclination to or actual
vomiting.─Heat in pit of stomach.─Empty feeling in
stomach, as if she had not eaten anything substantial yesterday and to-day.─Sensation
of faintness and vacuity in stomach-pit.
12. Abdomen.─
In abdomen, distension and hardness,
as large as a child’s head, as if it were in womb, and running throughout from it into
mammć, as if milk would rush in as when a child nurses; this lasted the whole first night
till morning; before the distension and hardness came on a sensation as after childbirth or
at conception (with great excitement).─A glass of water exposed to the
sun for six to eight minutes propagates coolness, not only in stomach, but round about in
the viscera (R).
13. Stool.─
Constipation.
14. Urinary Organs.─
Had to urinate five times in
night.─Urine and stool invariably suspended.
16. Female Sexual Organs.─
Menses six to seven
days too soon.
18. Chest.─
Weakness about heart.
20. Back.─
Pain in back.─Backache.
21. Limbs.─
After riding about on horseback in his
woods in the sunshine all forenoon, and lying down about noon on his bed to rest, he
suddenly gets peculiar attacks drawing through all his limbs; after rising and making a few
steps up and down, they disappear; this repeats itself several times (R).─(The
r. side, arm, and foot, which had been weak as from partial paralysis, became equally strong
as l.).─Hands and feet cold.
22. Upper Limbs.─
The back of hand exposed to
sunshine feels warm, while at same time a coolness appears in palm, and runs up whole arm
into temple (R).─Cool, refreshed hands from holding a stick partially
exposed to the sun (R).
24. Generalities.─
>
Of bad effects of the sun by every cloudy veil drawing over the sun (R).─If
beds and wearing apparel have lain too long in the sunshine, the agreeable feeling after
using them turns suddenly into the most disagreeable, so that she cannot bear it, and falls
into headache and spasm (R.).─Spasm coming with sunrise and ceasing with
sunset (R.).─Some spasms appearing at sunset (R).─Faintness.─Prostration.─(General
stiffening up of the system; the bodily strength seems more equalised.)
25. Skin.─
Dermatitis, which often, with cold
extremities, degenerates into megrim (R.).
26. Sleep.─
She could not sleep the first night,
except from 3 to 4 a.m.; otherwise no idea of sleep the whole night long.─Head
very much excited; could not sleep for hours.─Great sleepiness all
through the head, and not merely in the eyes; heavy, sound sleep all through night.
27. Fever.─
An agreeable coolness extends over
whole body, though the surface of the body perceives the physical heat of the sun’s rays;
simultaneously a kind of coldness interiorly pervades whole body, so that the sun makes warm
and cold at the same time, but the feeling of cold supersedes that of warmth to such a
degree that the latter is overlooked (R).─Running chills of increasing
sensation of cold in all limbs from holding wires partially exposed to the sun (R).─Felt
cold in night; drew up more cover and perspired.─Congestive chill from
exposure to sun after drinking cold water freely.─Perspiration streaming
out of stomach-pit over whole body (from the crude saturated sacch. lact., in one of
Fincke’s provers).® 2000
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